The mediocre works of an amateur learning to make stuff

Rebasing Mage Knight Lizardmen

I’ve been on the lookout for anything that may fit the draconic theme in my campaign, and I had a few Lizardman miniatures lying around. These come prepainted (as do all other Mage Knight minis I own) and have their own, huge base, but… they did not look quite right at the table, so I set upon the task of rebasing them, so they could join the ranks of the scaly baddies at the table.

I quite like the minis. They are humanoid lizards holding bone spears, carrying a bone knife at equipped with bits of armor. The material isn’t half bad either, resilient but slightly bendy, and it doesn’t have a lot of casting imperfections like some of the D&D miniatures I have painted in the past.

Another good thing about Mage Knight figures is that the glue holding them to the base makes a good job of keeping them on, but at the same time it can be broken quite easily by using the right method. The right method is to stick a thin blade (like a hobby knife or an x-acto knife) between the miniature’s feet and the base, and to gently pry it off. Instead of using a cutting, back-and-forth motion, I recommend an up-and-down motion (taking care not to ruin your blade). It should come off quite easily.

After that has been done, you just need to secure the miniatures to a new base. I recommend using some sort of sturdy rod (I cut off small sections of a paper clip for this) and drill small holes on the part of the miniature that you want to attach to the base. This is best achieved with a small drillbit and a dremel or pin vise, but if you haven’t got one of these tools, you can lightly heat up a long wire and use it to poke holes in the miniature’s feet. Just be VERY CAREFUL not to burn yourself (use a tool to hold the wire) and keep your nose away from harmful fumes the plastic may release. After doing that, you can attach them to their base using glue or epoxy putty and fill up any gaps in the base.

There we go. Almost there, but… the bases are looking very plain. Nothing that a little plastic putty won’t fix. I have used it in the past for my skeleton’s bases and I was quite pleased with the result, but I wanted to try something sloghtly different. This time, I applied it a lot more generously, and created swirly patterns with an old brush. I am planning on putting these guys on some sort of swamp terrain, and in order to achieve that, I needed depth.

Thankfully, the effect came out just as I hoped. Now to let it cure overnight so I can put some paint on it, as well as retouch some of the miniature’s features. I don’t think I will be repainting the whole body, but while working on these for a couple hours, I kept spotting imperfections here and there tat I just HAVE to correct!